Struts & Frets: Interviews with the Cast & Crew of A Midsummer Night's Dream - Erin Etheridge

In a world...where one woman is in love with a man who's in love with another woman who's in love with a man.... Where faeries are free to drug innocent youths with no legal recourse.... A down & out brawl will break out in the woods that will change everything.... Erin Etheridge is.... A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Or, at least the "dream" part. Hubba hubba.

HID: First thing's first, what's your favorite color and your character's favorite color?

EE: My favorite color is blue -any shade! Helena also likes blue because she’s a sad forlorn love-starved little puppy lost, quite literally, in the woods. Her favorite shade of blue depends on whatever Demetrius prefers and when she finds that out, she will paint her whole life that color. Like, he’s gonna accidentally(ha! she’s been stalking him since forever) run into her at the grocery store and her entire body will be smurph blue because he mentioned once, last week, that he liked the cartoon as a kid.

HID: Helena claims to be as "ugly as a bear", but if she could shapeshift into any animal, what would it be and why?

EE: Helena would definitely be a bird because it would be much easier to fly over Demetrius wherever he goes, keep tabs on him, watch him through his bedroom window, perch on his shoulder and sing love songs to him. You know, normal boyfriend/girlfriend stuff.

HID: Do you have any advice for anyone out there who might be pursuing someone uninterested in them?

EE: Keep at it! Don’t give up! Follow them around. Laugh at all their jokes. Hang around outside their house. Tell them how much you adore them -All. The. Time. Make them things. Send them things. Tap on their window at night. Sing to them. Recite poetry. If you can, and you have to work up to this one…physically attach yourself to their body and don’t allow ANYTHING to remove you. [Editor's note: This is Erin's advice as Helena. Her real advice is much more...sane.]

HID: Now that Helena and Demetrius are married, where will they vacation?

EE: Oh. My. God. I am married to DEMETRIUS!!!!!   AaaaaahhhhhhSqueeeeeeeeeHoooooraaaayyyyyYabbaDabbaDooooHolyMolyCanYouBelieveItJoyJoyJoyJoyEeeeeeeeee!!!!! I don’t care where we go, I’m gonna vacation in his eyes for the rest of my life!!!!

The real scholars among you will recognize that as a passage from Shakespeare's 8th folio. Come see that level of commitment onstage from Erin Etheridge (and the rest of the HIDiots) in Hamlet Isn't Dead's A Midsummer Night's Dream, OPEN NOW!
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Tickets are available at http://hidsummer.bpt.me -- One week only! June 29th - July 2nd!

For more information, you can visit http://www.hamletisntdead.com, and be sure to subscribe to our Mailing List while you're there.

If you haven't Liked us already on Facebook, now is the time! All the cool kids are doing it.
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Basically, if you want to follow us, you just put hamletisntdead after something. And why wouldn't you want to follow us?? We're a lot of fun, we promise.

Struts & Frets: Interviews with the Cast & Crew of A Midsummer Night's Dream - Morgan Hooper

If you've ever seen Morgan Hooper act before, you might not recognize him this time around. That's because he's usually playing with a crown on his head. With Hamlet Isn't Dead alone, he's played Henry VI, Richard II, and Prince Escalus in Romeo & Juliet, as well as King John, Leontes, and more, both at home and abroad. Can he scale down his regal stature to play the lovestruck Lysander? Come see the show and find out!

Odds are not in that noble brow's favor?

HID: First things first, what's your favorite color? What's your characters favorite color?

MH: Without a doubt my favorite color has always been red, whether that be classic red-red, burned red, rosy red or crimson. But Lysander is a complete contrast and only likes fire-engine red.

HID: So, not to get corny but you came to us straight from South Dakota (that's corn country right?). If Lysander were let loose in an empty Walmart in South Dakota what shenanigans would he get up to?

MH: You know, Lysander might seem like a total Marco Rubio-Ferris Bueller-hybrid-dillbag... but that's just a misunderstanding. He's totally the salt of the earth. He's just a Teddy Graham with the heavy burden of being the coolest dude ever, ya know? So, if he was rollin' with the Children of the Corn, he'd be having a blast. You might see him tearin' through aisle 8 on his skateboard, but he could just as easily be helping 94 year-old, Goody Smith find the Jimmy Dean's in the frozen. It's all about, like, point of view. And humanity. And, like, love.

HID: You are an unabashed Shakespeare nerd but if you had to choose another playwrights' works to perform who would you choose?

MH: Hm, there are actually several playwrights I love, ranging from classic to modern to the strange and avant garde, including: Chekov, O'Neill, Donald Margulies, Adam Rapp, Howard Barker and Michel de Ghelderode. I'm also a big fan of devised plays and classic tales from India and the Orient.

HID: What are Lysander's A-Plus sure fire moves for winning over a lady?

MH: That's easy. If my super bodacious red sunglasses don't get' em right away, it's usually a variation of "Whoa." I'll be like, "Whoa," or "Like..Whoa," or "Hey, Whoa," or "Whoa, Babe". Or sometimes if I can see there's something, like, special, I'll be like, "Hey, girl, like, whoa, we should  go down to the beach and, like, have a totally deep and meaningful conversation, ya know?" Chicks love that.

We can't argue with that! And you won't be able to either when you catch Morgan Hooper (and the rest of the HIDiots) at Hamlet Isn't Dead's A Midsummer Night's Dream, OPEN NOW!
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Tickets are available at http://hidsummer.bpt.me -- One weekend only! June 29th - July 2nd!

For more information, you can visit http://www.hamletisntdead.com, and be sure to subscribe to our Mailing List while you're there.

If you haven't Liked us already on Facebook, now is the time! All the cool kids are doing it.
https://www.facebook.com/HamletIsntDead

If Twitter's more your speed, we have that too. We just want to please you any way we can.https://twitter.com/hamletisntdead

Or to see us in action, you can check us out (and subscribe, hint, hint) at https://www.youtube.com/user/hamletisntdead

Basically, if you want to follow us, you just put hamletisntdead after something. And why wouldn't you want to follow us?? We're a lot of fun, we promise.

Struts & Frets: Interviews with the Cast & Crew of A Midsummer Night's Dream - Josh Mahaffey

Josh Mahaffey is a guitar-playing, smile-sharing, Honorificabilitudinitatibus-saying Mechanical like you wouldn't believe. If his constantly-warm demeanor doesn't win you over, his string picking skills will. How could you not love a man who made his own ukulele and is willing to put up with the HIDiots for his third production? Please enjoy, Josh Mahaffey as Quince and Moth!

But seriously, how could you not?

HID: First things first, what's your favorite color and what's your character's favorite color?

JM: Oh I just adore the struts and the frets!

My favorite color remains blue! Blue as bluest horse that yet would never tire! Or... something more clever.

Peter Quince’s favorite color is green. Peter would like nothing more than to spend his days rehearsing plays on a field of green green grass surrounded by trees growing with green green leaves, occasionally yielding the space to rival lovers spying on each other with green green envy.  And sometimes he visits Puck to buy some green green..... um, actually never mind.

HID: Peter Quince seems to thrive amidst a brotherhood. If he could rush a frat what would it be and why?

JM: Yes PQ is very much in need of camaraderie, but I think he'd want to make a new one and be in charge of it. His life values are Respect, Resilience, and Rehearsals in the woods, so he would name his brotherhood Rho Rho Rho ;) Of course, he wouldn't call his Fraternity a "Frat", because you don't call your country a - well, you know.

Oh, one more thing. If he did form 3-Rho, it would be a performance-based Fraternity dedicated to the education of college campuses on the prevention of sexual assault. Because, Peter and I believe greek organizations should be fierce advocates for student safety, not breeding grounds for sexual predators. Next question.

HID: If Peter Quince were to write a rock opera, what would it be called and what would it be about?

JM: Eager to capitalize on the instant (and honestly surprising) success of Pyramus and Thisby, he is currently adapting the play to a Broadway rock-opera. Working titles include "The Raging Rocks", "Parts Discharged", and "50 Shades of Loam." Cast includes (pending responses) Lin Manual Miranda as Pyramus, Neil Patrick Harris as Thisby, and Dwayne The Rock Johnson as The Wall.

HID: What is your favorite song to play on guitar? What's Peter Quince's favorite band?

JM: Favorite song to play on the guitar? That’s a toughie. But I’m going to have to say, even after all these years, Pinball Wizard still tops the list. Nothing else quite captures the excitement and satisfaction that power chords can bring to a person.

Quince’s favorite band is Spinal Tap. What can he say? He’s a sucker for general incompetency excused by constant hilarity, raw talent, and deep friendship.

We too are suckers for general incompetency! If you are too, we've got more than enough to share at A Midsummer Night's Dream, opening June 29th! Come see Josh (and the rest of the cast) or be square!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tickets are available at http://hidsummer.bpt.me -- One weekend only! June 29th - July 2nd!

For more information, you can visit http://www.hamletisntdead.com, and be sure to subscribe to our Mailing List while you're there.

If you haven't Liked us already on Facebook, now is the time! All the cool kids are doing it.
https://www.facebook.com/HamletIsntDead

If Twitter's more your speed, we have that too. We just want to please you any way we can.https://twitter.com/hamletisntdead

Or to see us in action, you can check us out (and subscribe, hint, hint) at https://www.youtube.com/user/hamletisntdead

Basically, if you want to follow us, you just put hamletisntdead after something. And why wouldn't you want to follow us?? We're a lot of fun, we promise.

Struts & Frets: Interviews with the Cast & Crew of A Midsummer Night's Dream - Megan Greener

You know that feeling when you're alone at night and you hear a sound from the other side of the house? You tiptoe down the hall, turning on every light before entering the room. You swear you hear the laughter of a demon child echoing against the walls. Your shaking hands reach around the corner to flick on the light switch only to see...Megan Greener in polka-dotted pajamas cackling about bulldog photos on Instagram! Yeah, this blog post is something like that.

We're already open to proposals for a gritty reboot.

HID: First things first, what's your favorite color and what's your character's favorite color?

MG: Woof, not to make a very simple, friendly question more complicated, but I always feel like my choice somehow adequates to who I am as a person! Am I the only one who feels that way? I am? Great. A glimpse into my general psychology, everyone. Imagine me figuring out what to make for breakfast, or what to wear outside of my apartment. My opinions always change, but at the moment, I like anything between a nice Kelly green and a forest green (pretentious, yes?), because it's soothing... This is mainly coming from someone who needs a vacation, so anything soothing is a lovely thing. For Hermia, I think red is a general favorite of hers. Or at least anything with a lot of red in it, because she clearly lives, loves, and feels passionately - she most likely even sees some red when she doesn't get what she wants - and I think red embodies all of that.

HID: So, many HID fans may not realize that you're a third-degree black belt, which basically makes you a ninja. Do you employ any of your dojo discipline to the fight scenes or in real life?

MG: Am I a ninja? I guess that would make me the most rusty ninja in town, then. I think our Lysander (aka, Morgan Hooper, a current Kendo extraordinaire) qualifies for that title much more than I do. I began studying Tang Soo Do at around age 6 or 7, then moved onto Taekwondo not long after, and kept my training up consistently until my junior year of college, when I had earned my third degree black belt and was instructing by then. But, I was also a theatre major at that point, and doing them both at the same time at the rate I was going became too difficult, so I ultimately had to give all my focus to theatre and acting.

I think the only trace of Taekwondo you'll see from me in the show is during an interesting little moment between Demetrius and Hermia out in the middle of the woods, and then maybe the way Hermia slowly stalks Helena - like a prey, if not a sparring partner - after the lover's quarrel has just ended. As for real life, I've been lucky so far, and hope I never end up  in the position of having to use anything I've learned (knock on wood). Best case scenario, if anything ever happened, I'd probably end up using a messy combination of actual technique and just sheer animal instinct. When you've trained, certain things of course never leave you; but you've also ingrained the idea that you're not looking for anyone to fight, ever. You try to make that the last option possible, before it's absolutely needed. In the end, it's all just a practical means of self-defense and self-care - and also just happens to be a gorgeous art form to watch, which is what I was always more drawn to as a student, anyway.

HID: What does Hermia want to be when she grows up?

MG: At the moment, since I think she's a "live in the now" kind of person, she just wants to be married to the man whom she loves. That's priority number one. Once that's happened, however, the world is her oyster. Maybe she'll grow to be a quintessential aristocratic lady, with whatever responsibilities that comes with, or maybe she'll open up a chain of serious self-defense schools, or maybe even a UN Women Goodwill Ambassador for equal rights - since that whole "marry Demetrius or be put to your death" stunt that good ol' Dad pulled didn't quite go over so well. Who knows? (I'm leaning towards the third option.) With the money she already has, and the money she'll be marrying into, she might have the time and means for all three.

HID: In the show, Hermia has bad dream about a snake eating her heart. What was your most memorable dream recently and what do you think it symbolizes?  

MG: Yikes. Just this past week, I had a dream that one of my acting coaches, who is now the senior acting instructor at the studio where I trained, had attended some sort of... bad, avant-garde performance that I was apart of... I can't even describe it, mainly because I can't remember. I think I was sitting with others around a dining room table during it? With Jon Hamm? I think he was there.

Anyway, my teacher was just not having it, and was a breath way from walking out, and I could feel that as I was... doing whatever I was doing. I have no idea what that dream could mean. I've been out of acting school for a few years now, but the feeling of knowing that you're just crashing and burning in front of your acting teachers is all too familiar, and probably will never leave me. With that said - come see me as Hermia! She'll be sitting at a dining room able at some point! ...Nah, just kidding, she'll just get lost in the woods, as usual.

You heard the lady! Get on down to the woods (of the West Village) and check out Megan Greener (and the rest of the cast) in A Midsummer Night's Dream, opening June 29th!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tickets are available at http://hidsummer.bpt.me -- One weekend only! June 29th - July 2nd!

For more information, you can visit http://www.hamletisntdead.com, and be sure to subscribe to our Mailing List while you're there.

If you haven't Liked us already on Facebook, now is the time! All the cool kids are doing it.
https://www.facebook.com/HamletIsntDead

If Twitter's more your speed, we have that too. We just want to please you any way we can.https://twitter.com/hamletisntdead

Or to see us in action, you can check us out (and subscribe, hint, hint) at https://www.youtube.com/user/hamletisntdead

Basically, if you want to follow us, you just put hamletisntdead after something. And why wouldn't you want to follow us?? We're a lot of fun, we promise.

Struts & Frets - Interview with the Cast & Crew of A Midsummer Night's Dream: Rhys McClelland

Ladies and gentlemen, it is our great pleasure to introduce Rhys McClelland! And it's Rhys' great pleasure to introduce our Struts & Frets series for A Midsummer Night's Dream. Rhys has the great honor of playing Puck and Egeus in our production, and we have the great honor of playing with him. And you have the greatest honor of all: reading all about this wonderful, wonderful man! Enjoy!

We wonder what the wonderful wonder wonders.

HID: First thing's first: What's your favorite color, and what's your character's favorite color?

RM: My favorite colour would probably be red. Until recently I wouldn't have said that and would have replied 'green' or 'tan' or something equally neutral...but I'm evolving!

Puck's favorite colour would depend on who is asking I think...and then when you bought him a lovely new hat in that colour he'd pretend he said something else!

HID: Puck as a penchant for the odd rhyming couplet. Who's your favorite poet and why?

RM: Definitely Rudyard Kipling purely for 'If' and 'My Boy Jack'

That said, although not strictly a poet William Babington Macauly's 'Horatius at the Bridge' is thrilling and has some memorable lines...

HID: If Egeus were to plan Hermia's wedding to Demetrius, what would the theme be? What kind of cake would they have?

RM: The theme would be chastity! There would be no cake, well not for Hermia! In fact Egeus would probably have all the women go home right after the ceremony to sew and to try to resist forming any opinions, while he and Demetrius smoked cigars and ate a Victoria sponge cake so as to not get over excited...

HID: If you could have any of Puck's powers, what would you choose? Would you use your powers for good or evil?

RM: Probably putting a girdle about the earth in 40 minutes because I'd save a fortune on flights home to the UK! And it wouldn't take all night...

Although...being invisible would be awesome! (Actually invisible though, not just the kind of invisible you experience on the subway and on 5th avenue on a Saturday)...I would love to say I'd use it for good, but I have to be honest and say I'm not sure I would...I'd see a lot of free ball games, many free shows and would play all kinds of tricks on people, so much like puck really.

He may be a trickster, but Rhys is clearly very visible, and you should come see him (and the rest of the Midsummer cast!) at A Midsummer Night's Dream, opening June 29th!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tickets are available at http://hidsummer.bpt.me -- One weekend only! June 29th - July 2nd!

For more information, you can visit http://www.hamletisntdead.com, and be sure to subscribe to our Mailing List while you're there.

If you haven't Liked us already on Facebook, now is the time! All the cool kids are doing it.
https://www.facebook.com/HamletIsntDead

If Twitter's more your speed, we have that too. We just want to please you any way we can.https://twitter.com/hamletisntdead

Or to see us in action, you can check us out (and subscribe, hint, hint) at https://www.youtube.com/user/hamletisntdead

Basically, if you want to follow us, you just put hamletisntdead after something. And why wouldn't you want to follow us?? We're a lot of fun, we promise.

Struts & Frets - Interviews with the Cast & Crew of A Midsummer Night's Dream: Kevin Percival

Kevin Percival is a long time HIDiot (And we mean that in the kindest way possible). He's played with us before in The Taming of the Shrew and the Henry VI trilogy, and if we have anything to say about it, this won't be the last time he joins us. In this production, he plays the majestic Theseus and the magical Oberon. You can watch him sing, dance, and twiddle about onstage, but only after you've read all about him!

Did someone spill some Love in Idleness in here
or is it just us?

HID: So first thing's first, what's your favorite color? What's your character's favorite color?

KP: Mine is green. Theseus is partial to purple. Oberon's favorite is whatever you want it to be, hot stuff.

HID: So Oberon is all about drugging the mortals, but if he had a drug of choice, what do you think it would be?

KP: Methylenedioxymethamphetamine.

HID: If Oberon were ever to deign to do some karaoke what would his power song be? What duet would he perform with Titania?

KP: Power song? Tiptoe Through The Tulips. Oberon would hypnotize Bottom to strum the uke. Unless, hm, Titania might think ukulele is lame. Maybe Bottom can shred a Stratocaster? Titania and Oberon don't really duet much anymore, and the last time they went to karaoke she sang some Carly Simon song. Oberon is pretty sure it was about him. 

HID: Theseus really is into Amazons. If he could order anything next day delivery of Amazon Prime, what would it be?

KP: A "Do Not Disturb" sign. 

He may be the king of Faeries, but you should disturb him all you want! Come disturb him and the rest of the cast at A Midsummer Night's Dream, opening June 29th!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tickets are available at http://hidsummer.bpt.me -- One weekend only! June 29th - July 2nd!

For more information, you can visit http://www.hamletisntdead.com, and be sure to subscribe to our Mailing List while you're there.

If you haven't Liked us already on Facebook, now is the time! All the cool kids are doing it.
https://www.facebook.com/HamletIsntDead

If Twitter's more your speed, we have that too. We just want to please you any way we can.https://twitter.com/hamletisntdead

Or to see us in action, you can check us out (and subscribe, hint, hint) at https://www.youtube.com/user/hamletisntdead

Basically, if you want to follow us, you just put hamletisntdead after something. And why wouldn't you want to follow us?? We're a lot of fun, we promise.